There is variation. But not the same as a Metallica album.

Well there's certainly more variation in quality with Metallica.

This was going to be my response to his post as well. Metallica have over time gone downhill. And I actually quite liked Death Magnetic.

slayer of course metallica is so overrated

I think that album is one of those that was underrated when it first came out, cause everyone was hoping for Reign in Blood Pt. 2, but later on people realized that it was still a solid album, and now that everyone is over that realization we can all agree that it's still too tepid to be a proper Slayer album.

Metallica, even if maybe the last albums are not so good...and I don't know Slayer's music very well, so I had to vote for Metallica.

Skip as necessary for what you've listened to (though I would suggest listening to all of these anyway, just to re-educate yourself)...

Reign in Blood
Hell Awaits
Seasons in the Abyss
Show No Mercy
Haunting the Chapel
Christ Illusion

Or for a song-by-song lesson in each album...














Slayer are quite possibly the best thrash metal band of all-time, and certainly the most consistent band of the eighties. One of the few bands who aren't just hype.

86-88 were such incredible years for music. At the time I was all about Swans, Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers and metal was kind of just all bunched up in my head. I bought South of Heaven when it came out and loved it but didn't really think much about it in terms of it being a kind of departure from the Reign in Blood sound. I just thought of South of Heaven as a great record. I didn't even know strict metal heads had an issue with it. I found the grooves completely absorbing, hypnotic, and very fun to bugout on.

I respect they way you're looking at South of Heaven as a whole and how it stacks up overall to those other Slayer releases but for me personally I really love it song for song. That said, at the very least, South of Heaven, Silent Scream, and Mandatory Suicide all still command so much respect I would be shocked if you're not still in complete awe even today when one of those three tracks start up. They are so ****ing definitive of what great metal is I mean, I don't know, it's ****ing crushing. Like listening to those riffs actually make you more powerful as a human being. Borderline supernatural or some ****. And time hasn't watered down the effect at all. It's timeless.

Compare this to ...And Justice for All which I also bought right when it came out but I was so disappointed. From that point on I was done with Metallica.

At that time though, I thought Celtic Frost, Napalm Death/Godflesh (especially that first (?) EP with Avalanche Master Song) and Extreme Noise Terror (which I classified as metal not punk- and I loved that Extreme Noise Terror/Chaos UK split) - well I thought all those bands were more important than Slayer. And I still hold all those bands in very, very high regard - along with the sadly mostly forgotten Head of David- but then some time in like the late '90's I think I started really deeply re-examining Reign in Blood. I always knew it was great but it started to like melt my brain or something. Like it has the power of a giant asteroid. Like so good it reaches that point where it's impossible to be better. Any genre any artist all you can do is tie it.

This is a bit of a ramble but...

I definitely like a lot of the songs on South of Heaven, love a few, and dislike pretty much none, but it just doesn't hit as hard as it should, even compared to other thrash albums. I actually like "Spill the Blood" the most from that album, since it shows an atmospheric side to Slayer that they hadn't previously showed, but even then I think that sound was bettered on Seasons in the Abyss by the title track, which is quite possibly the best Slayer song of all-time.

South of Heaven is definitely better than the vast majority of thrash albums, but you still have to compare it to other Slayer albums, cause they're ****ing Slayer, and it just doesn't have the same impact as their first three albums (or four if you want to include Haunting the Chapel) and is also inferior to Seasons in the Abyss.

South of Heaven has a special place in my heart. Sometimes a record just hits the spot and that might be because of some outside factors. Time and place. I get what you're saying and I know you really like it, too. Being pretty strict in what defines "thrash" tell me some non-Slayer records you like better than South of Heaven.

And I might think another record is better but still LIKE the inferior one more if that makes any sense.